Oilers’ Jordan Eberle makes his case for all-star nod

Edmonton Oilers' Jordan Eberle has made a case for All-Star Game

By Jim Matheson

DALLAS — If the National Hockey League head office is making its list and checking it twice for players in the NHL All-Star Game, Jordan Eberle should be on it, and it wouldn’t be throwing the Edmonton Oilers a bone.

Eberle is seventh in NHL scoring, tied in points with Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin, only five points back of Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux and Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin who lead the parade with 48.

Pretty good company.

In a season of ups and down for the Oilers, who started with a bang and now are leaving games with a whimper, he’s travelled the smoothest road. Almost no bumps along the way.

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In the last 22 games, going back to the Oilers’ 9-2 smackdown of the Chicago Blackhawks on Nov. 19, Eberle has points in 19 of those games. He was only blanked in Colorado (Nov. 26), Calgary (Dec. 3) and Long Island (New Year’s Eve).

He has 30 points in those 22 games, including 13 goals. He’s got 28 even-strength points — same as Giroux and Daniel Sedin. He’s got 24 points at home, but 19 on the road.

He has 13 multiple-point games — only Henrik, Malkin and Washington’s Nick Backstrom have more at 14.

He’s already tied last year’s 43 points that he rang up in 69 games as a rookie.
“Your second year is your biggest year in your development because nobody really knows what to expect in the first year. In the second teams start to key on you a little bit and you play against bigger defenceman,” said Eberle.

“I didn’t really talk to other players about (sophomore struggles). In my mind, I’d been to all the rinks (NHL) before, I just figured I’d be better. From Year 1 to Year 2 to your third year, you’re supposed to get better. That was my mindset coming in. I wanted to be consistent.

“You watch the best players in the league and that’s what they are. The best players do it every night, giving their teams a chance to win. I want to be a threat to score every game, or a threat to make plays every time out there.”

The longest he’s gone without a point is three games (Games 4-6 and Games 14-16).
“I prepared well for this season, I had a good summer of training. I shot lots of pucks with a special machine, and playing with Smytty (Ryan Smyth) and Nuge (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) off the bat . . . I had chemistry with them. Plus our power play has been deadly this year and a lot of productivity comes from that.”

Eberle says he’s much more concerned with scoring for the Oilers than in an All-Star Game three weeks from now in Ottawa. That’s the proper thing to say, but it would be a treat for Eberle who admits he watched last year’s all-star draft show on TSN where Phil Kessel got picked last.

“That can be pretty degrading, but he did get a car for it,” said Eberle.

Eberle likely wouldn’t be the final name called, not as long as he stays seventh in league scoring.

“Sick hands,” said Smyth. “That goal he scored in San Jose (Dec. 17, cutting around a D-man and tucking it past Sharks goalie Antti Niemi) was highlight-reel stuff, and his first NHL goal (toe-drag against the Calgary Flames last season), now, that was sick. He really has sweet hands. (Alex) Kovalev’s had the quickest hands I’ve seen, but some of the things Ebs does in games and in practice, he’s up there.”

Eberle doesn’t look at the net when he is shooting. As Mike Bossy used to say, “it hasn’t moved in 100 years.”

“You have a feel for where it is,” said Eberle, who likes the toe-drag in traffic to change the angle for the shot. He likes shooting through skates. “Watch (Alex) Ovechkin, he pulls it in and goes through a defenceman’s feet.”

He doesn’t shoot pucks against a barn door like Al MacInnis used to in Nova Scotia when he was growing up, but he does practice.

“At my gym in Regina we have a machine that passes you pucks and a thing that lights up. You have to hit it,” Eberle said.